US – Page 194 – TechConnect Briefs

Economic Assessment of a Conceptual Biomass to Liquids Bio-Syntrolysis Plant

Plum M.M., Hawkes G.L., Idaho National Laboratory, US

An economic assessment of integrating a High-Temperature Generation Plant (HTGR) with a biomass to SynFuel plant was performed under three market scenarios. Results are as competitive as other carbon feedstock to liquid fuel concepts being [...]

Economic and Job Impacts of Increased Efficiency in Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants

Bezdek R.H., Wendling R.M., MISI, US

New Aspects of the Work: We estimated the incremental costs and benefits of coal power plant efficiency improvements and the economic and job implications of these. Conclusions and Main Results: Significant CO2 emissions could be [...]

Nanostructured Photocatalytic Approach to CO2 Conversion

Corti G., Cantrell T., Beaux M., Prakash T., McIlroy D.N., Norton M.G., GoNano Technologies, US

Several approaches to stabilize and reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations have been tested. While carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been hailed as the most promising approach for sequestering CO2 safely away from the atmosphere, the [...]

Novel Surfactants for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Shepard P.H., Novomer, Inc., US

Despite the advent of numerous alternative energy technologies and fuels, the United States will continue to rely heavily on oil, especially from imported sources, to satisfy its energy demand for the foreseeable future. As there [...]

Synthesis and characterization of cation-exchanged laponite nanohybrids for use as drilling fluid viscosifier

Phuoc T.X., Soong Y., Chyu M.K., National Energy Technology Lab, US

In this paper we report our new approach to synthesize cation-exchanged Laponite nanohybrids for use as gel-forming, viscosity and weighting material stabilizing additives for drilling fluid application. To synthesize the nanohybrids, we use laser ablation [...]

Integrated, Renewable Distributed Generation w/ Storage

Olson D., P&E Automation, Inc., US

Case study of a successful integrated renewable distributed generation project for demand response at a large U.S. aerospace manufacturer site.Project incorporated wind, pump-storage hydro, waste compressed air storage power generators and utility company interfaces.

Identification of Battery Models for Enhanced Battery Management

Sitterly M., Wang L.Y., Wayne State University, US

A large-scale battery system consists of hundreds even thousands battery cells, which have different characteristics even when they are new, and change with time and operating conditions due to aging, operational conditions, and chemical property [...]

Performance Improvement of Fuel Cell using Platinum Functionalized Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

Liu D., Liu J., Goenaga G., Liu D., Liu J., Texas A&M University-Kingsville, US

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are the energy conversion devices with ultrahigh efficiency, zero emission, and high flexibility of the fuel supplies. This study has optimized growth variables of the aligned carbon nanotubes (ACNT) [...]

Novel High Energy Density Supercapacitors

Risser S., Tan B., Castaneda H., Spahr K., Stasik M., Battelle Memorial Institute, US

Cost-effective electrical storage is a critical need for enhancing current devices and enabling new devices and technologies. One of the storage types Battelle has been actively investigating is hybrid supercapacitors. Achieving high energy density in [...]

Shape Selective Nano-Catalyst for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC) Applications

Hunyadi Murph S., Fox E.B., Serkiz S.M., Colon-Mercado H., Savannah River National Laboratory, US

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) have recently attracted much interest as a promising alternative to conventional batteries, especially in portable electronic devices. DMFCs, however, have several disadvantages including high cost, largely as a result of [...]